Chinese Power Company to Spend 12.09B Dollars
on Grid Renovation

An electricity shortfall of 25m kwh has been predicted
by the State Power Grid Corporation (SPG), the China
Securities Daily reported here Thursday [7 July].

To remedy the situation, the largest power grid
company in China has decided to input more than
100bn yuan (about 12.09bn US dollars) on the construction
and renovation of power grids.

Of the 20,000-km-long transmission lines to be
built this year, transmission lines of 5,556 km
has been put to use by the end of June, said the
article.

SPG statistics showed that the first quarter has
seen a total of 26 provincial power grids temporarily
switch off electricity supply to alleviate power
shortage.

According to a forecast by the North China Power
Grid Company, the region around Beijing, Tianjin
and Tangshan of north China's Hebei Province suffered
a combined power shortfall of 1.85m kwh.

In a breakdown, the maximum capacity for Beijing
power grids hit 10.7m kwh, up 13.4 per cent over
a year earlier, causing a shortfall of more than
1m kwh. The maximum capacity for Tianjin power grids
reached 6m kwh, facing a shortfall of half a million
kwh.

Deputy general economic administrator Xie Zhiguo
of the Beijing Power Company said that the capital
of China has mapped out a series of measures to
avoid the power demand at rush hours.

A peak price has been put to pilot use among industrial
consumers and will be practiced among all users
by 2008 except residents, subway, trolley buses
and farming irrigation, he said.